20XE burning oil

i had a car a while ago (non vaux) and as soon as you lifted off the throttle on the over run its smoked like feck

did you change the valve stem seals?

Fitted new ones when I built the engine.

I've just had it ticking over on the driveway, put my hand over the exhaust and it spat black specs out. Could this be unburnt oil?

This is what the driveway looks like after revving it 3-4 times

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/Black1.JPG

And a piece of paper held over the tailpipe for 15 seconds on idle:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/Black2.JPG

It's quite moist on the paper. Is this concerning or just normal?

have you done a compression test, also did you get the rings checked to see you fitted them correctly prior to building?

Not managed to do a compression test yet as my compression tester broke. I did not get the rings checked.

well its only a wild guess at this stage, with the amount of unburnt oil on the paper and it being newly built i'd be looking at the rings as suspect, far to much there for it to be a stem seal but you never know it might just be weeping and oils sitting in the exhaust,its a nice car shame if you need to strip engine already but just one of them things as they say, you should ask lee303 on here or mig seems to know his stuff with engines/rebuilds:thumb:

Sure you didn't fit a diesel engine? :p

If it were the rings would it not be burning a lot more rather than spitting it out unburnt?

I've posted on MIG mrT in the hope Lee sees it :) Thanks for your help

Hand over the exhaust today and it wasn't spitting black out, and won't leave any marks on the floor, so it's quite intermittent. Results from compression test:

Hot + dry, average:
1 = 230
2 = 232
3 = 248
4 = 248

Hot + with a dribble of oil down the bores (first go then second go):
1 = 290, 280
2 = 300, 295
3 = 290, 280
4 = 298, 277

Id say you have a problem with #1 and or #2